With the present commercialization of a computer network of networks, commonly referred to as the internet, a variety of businesses have started to offer electronic mail (e-mail) and other services for computer users. In general, e-mail provides a rapid and relatively inexpensive means of communications between computer users. In some sectors, e-mail communication is rapidly replacing traditional telephone and facsimile communication.
One problem with e-mail communications, however, is that relatively large files may not be easy to share between users. For example, large files are often included as attachments to e-mail messages. These attachments, if they exceed a certain size, may be stripped off by e-mail gateways, e.g., located at the front-end of a computer network system, before the message is passed to its ultimate destination. As a result, the ultimate recipient may not receive the intended message.
Another problem with e-mail messages transmitted via the internet is that important formatting information may be lost during transmission. For example, tabular data may be reorganized during transmission such that the recipient must reorganize the data into its proper tabular form before the message can be clearly understood. So too, graphic information may be lost and/or distorted during transmission.
Traditional facsimile messages avoid these problems. For example, facsimile messages transmitted across telephone lines retain all the formatting and graphical information of the original message. Also, there is no danger of portions of a facsimile message being stripped off by a gateway prior to reception. Despite these advantages, however, facsimile reception usually requires a dedicated telephone line for connection to the receiving facsimile machine. In a large corporation or other office, it is impractical to provide each member of the office with dedicated facsimile reception capabilities, thus, facsimile services are shared amongst a number of users. This poses a problem where confidential information is to be received by facsimile. There can be no guarantee that the intended recipient of the facsimile message will be the only one who will observe the confidential facsimile message.
Presently, some vendors do offer partial integration of facsimile services and e-mail services. However, in these systems, users must each be assigned individual telephone numbers, thus leading to difficulties where a large number of users must be accommodated. Thus, it would be desirable to provide a system which combines the advantages, while avoiding the disadvantages, of facsimile message and e-mail communications within a single system.